Ice plant
Mesembryanthemum crystallinum · Ice plant family
Plant portrait
Common ice plant carries fleshy leaves covered in small glistening cells.
Harvested part
The leaves of plants grown as a vegetable.
What to watch for
Watch the glistening surface and thick leaves; their appearance is not caused by frost.
Growth stages of the ice plant
Plotilo illustrates the ice plant in 5 stages in 3D: seed, small sprout, young plant, growing and harvest. The models show typical shapes; they do not predict how long growth takes.
- Seed
Starting from a seed. It is shown on the surface to make it visible in this illustration.
- Small sprout
A short first stem and its first small leaves emerge.
- Young plant
The young plant carries more leaves and starts to take its own shape.
- Growing
Leaves and stems develop. Their shape depends on the species.
- Harvest
An illustration of the harvested part. Roots are made visible for clarity; this image does not confirm actual maturity.
Same botanical family
Same botanical family as the ice plant (the ice plant family): the New Zealand spinach. Gardeners usually avoid growing the same family in the same spot several years in a row: that is the idea behind crop rotation.